Prologue

Life was great; the sun was atop a cloudless sky, the tops were off, and the ocean, which was the most beautiful shade of cyan, glittered in the sun. It was days like this that I loved.

Days like today meant that I could just lie back and watch that topless guy walk back and forward behind the secrecy of my sunglasses. Today I had my eye on this one in particular. He had the most beautiful golden hair and the best abs I had ever seen. Once he finished surfing he came back on the beach, dried off and began to roll in the sand with his Growlithe. Nothing was cuter than hearing the shrill screams of a Growlithe as it got its belly rubbed by a hot man.

Wait a minute? Growlithe don't have a shrill scream. Then I felt it.

WHACK!

'Fetch! What in the name of all that is Mew was that for?'

'Fetch'

Fetch pointed her leek out into the ocean and that is when I realised where the screams were coming from. There was a young girl, no more than 10 years old, flailing about in the water. At that moment the whole world slowed and I seemed to be moving at a sonic pace. In about five seconds I was riding a Blastoise towards the screams.

'Blastoise GO!'

I threw the Pokéball in the air and ran towards the beach taking off my top as I ran. Behind me Fetch collected my Pokéball, packed it safely in my bag and flew behind me as Blastoise dived into the water in front of me. I leapt onto his back and he headed straight for the little girl.

I had been riding on the back of a Blastoise for about 10 years, so I would like to think that I was rather good at it. It was a really good way to impress guys. Suddenly my mind wandered to all of the guys watching from the beach and how amazing they probably thought I was.

I snapped myself out of my fantasy and realised I had a job to do.

'Squirt, out you come. We have work to do.' I said as Squirt landed on Blastoise's head.

Squirt was a young Squirtle I was training up; I got him about five months before. The organisation I worked for bred water Pokémon so that we could train them to help us while working. Usually we never got Pokémon to train for ourselves, but Squirt would never let anyone else near him and usually cried and hid in his shell if anyone else tried to touch him.

I remember when Squirt hatched; it was right in front of me. Usually we weren't allowed in the egg room, mainly because of how impressionable the Pokémon were immediately after hatching and the Lifeguards were worried that they would latch on to one particular person, but James owed me a favour and he promised me one look. We were just leaving and I knew that night would be the night I would finally break James and get at least one kiss off him, when we heard one of the eggs begin to hatch.

'Right we need to get out here before they catch us,' James said with a hint of fear in his voice. Well that was it decided; he wasn't getting a kiss anymore, what a wuss.

'I don't think so I am staying right here,' as I moved closer towards the egg.

Bits of the shell were starting to fall off, until finally a small blue head popped out of the shell.

'Squirt.'

The small Squirtle tilted its head to the side and started reach out for me. As I lifted him up he squirted me in the face lightly.

'Oh Squirt you are so adorable.'

Ever since then we were inseparable. Luckily we never got in trouble for going into the room, but they could never get near the baby Squirtle, never mind get near him, so he was given to me on the condition I trained and raised him myself. So Squirtle came home with me and ever since then he was my little Squirt.

As we were racing towards the little girl Squirt looked up at me and sprayed me in the face lightly. 'Squirtle, Squirtle!'

We were closing in on the little girl and it was time for action. I knew Squirt could handle this. He had made a few successful rescues but lately he didn't concentrate hard enough. However, the girl was small and I had complete faith in him. All he had to do was swim over to the girl and help her over and on to Blastoise's back. Simple.

But then it all happened so fast. I couldn't stop it.

All of a sudden the little girl had vanished underwater! The next thing I knew Squirt had dived underwater next to her. I didn't know what to do! Panic seared through me. I had never let Squirt out in the ocean by himself. I needed to save that little girl but there was no way Squirt would never be able to bring her to the surface.

Blastoise stopped suddenly and looked back at me waiting for me to give directions.

'Blastoise!'

'I know, I know!' I urged back. I didn't know what to do. The whole world seemed to be standing still and I couldn't get my brain into action. Squirtle could never retrieve that girl… I had faith in him, but not that much. All of a sudden the sound of the waves came back to me and a rush of adrenaline hit me.

'Right Blastoise, you go down and get the girl! Just let her fall onto your back, and I will find Squirt!'

I jumped off his back and dived into the water. As clear as the water seemed from above I could barely see a thing in its murky depths. I couldn't see Squirt anywhere! Actually I couldn't see the girl either. I dived deeper and deeper but couldn't see anything. I came up to get some air when I noticed that Fetch was flying overhead.

'Fetch! Has anyone come up yet?'

Fetch just pointed her leek at me then flew away. What sort of dumb Pokémon did I own, what good did she do me? I swear when I got back I was going to -

'Squirtle! Squirtle!'

I felt a blast of water hitting against my head and when I turned round and there they were, Squirtle and the small girl on the back of Blastoise's back.

'Awk Blastoise! What a good boy you are!'

This time I got a blast of water straight in my face. At least this time it made the little girl laugh. But this time it was more than the water that hit me.

'Squirty! You did this?'

'Squirt, squirt!'

'Awk I am so proud of you! Congratulations!'

I pulled myself onto Blastoise's shell and realised the girl was still just lying there with her eyes closed and hands behind her head, sunbathing on his back.

'Are you okay?' I asked.

'Yeah, I am fine! I was just hoping someone else would rescue me!' she said. She opened one of eyes and glared at me like it was my fault she had been drowning. 'I was hoping for one of the hot guys! I tried to escape but your damn Squirtle found me.'

I didn't know what to say, this little girl had more sass than any of the gays in Fuschia. I don't know what shocked me more, the fact she just faked a drowning, that she just metaphorically slapped me in the face, or the fact that I was slightly impressed by a devious plan devised by a 10 year old.

'You mean you planned this?'

'Well done, sister! Did someone teach you Keen Eye this morning?'

Just at that point I saw Fetch flying towards us, I have to admit, Fetch was my best friend, I had known her for years and I had never met a Pokémon (or human) who I could connect more with. Fetch wasn't heading down towards us, but rather like she would fly right over us. Sometimes I swear Fetch could read my mind.

This time the shrill screams of the girl were for real and all I could is stop myself from laughing off into the ocean.

'That damn bird has just ruined my hair!'

'Unfortunately you can't plan for everything; you should just go home and get your mummy to clean that out for you.'

We dropped the girl off on the beach and Blastoise returned to his Pokéball. Squirt climbed up and sat on my head as we walked across the beach to the Lifeguard hut. Fetch was already waiting for us there. I reached into my bag and threw a few berries at her and lifted the rest up to Squirt.

'I am so proud of the both of you! You both did me proud today!'

Squirt jumped down and lay on the decking outside the hut while Fetch sat on her perch playing with her leek. I left them to relax and went inside.

I placed Blastoise's ball in the holding shelf next to the rest of the rescue Pokémon and walked into the office to write in the diary what had happened, then sign off and spend the rest of the day training Squirt.

'Fintan can I see you in my office for a minute?'

Mr Randilyn was Chief Lifeguard, and my boss. He was a nice enough guy until you stepped out of line and then he was like a Tauros in a china shop. Thankfully he had never got mad at me, and seeing as he was letting me keep Squirt even though I wasn't a Lifeguard Trainer I was convinced I was his favourite.

When I got into his office my mother was sitting with him. This could only end badly. Mummy always took an interest in my life and was always very supportive of me, and I could never ask for a better mother and friend, but still, there was something about this situation that I didn't like.

'Finn honey, don't worry I am here for good reasons, I promise.'

Something inside me squirmed. She had never lied to me before, but sometimes she had this way of not telling the whole truth. Which meant that something good was about to happen, but it probably wasn't going to be anything I had been dreaming on my whole life.

'Honey, Diana has suffered a heart attack.'